Giants fans react to Lincecum's Game 4 bullpen brilliance

After managing only three runs and 12 hits through the first three games of the NLDS -- not to mention striking out a whopping 26 times -- the San Francisco Giants decided to start hitting the ball Wednesday afternoon, defeating the Reds 8-3 and forcing a decisive Game 5 Thursday in Cincinnati.

You would think that early home runs from unlikely sources like Gregor Blanco and Angel Pagan -- who hit just 13 big flies combined in the regular season -- and a massive blast from Pablo Sandoval to break the game open in the seventh, would make the Giants' offense the hero of Game 4.

Grant Brisbee of McCovey Chronicles doesn't see it that way. For Brisbee, the story of the game was former Cy Young winner and newly-minted long reliever Tim Lincecum:

The story of this game should probably be the offense. With eight runs, the Giants probably would have won if Zito pitched a complete game. But Lincecum's the story. Fifty-five pitches, 42 strikes.

Fifty-five pitches, 42 strikes. Goodness, that was fantastic to watch...

[H]eck, maybe Lincecum needed to feel disrespected to pitch like this. I don't know how these things work. All I know is that Tim Lincecum was the winning pitcher in an elimination game he wasn't even supposed to pitch. And he looked better than we could ever imagine, even though we should have been able to imagine a helluva lot because he's Tim Lincecum.

Lincecum made his second 2012 postseason appearance out of the bullpen and was absolutely lights-out but for a sacrifice fly in the sixth. The Freak pounded the strike zone for 4⅓ innings, striking out six and walking none, earning his first postseason win since his Game 5 World Series-clinching victory in 2010.

The Giants will send Matt Cain to the mound Thursday to take on Mat Latos and the Reds at Great American Ball Park in the deciding game of their NLDS matchup.

First pitch is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET. The game will be aired on TBS.

Reds fans react to Game 4 loss

Cincinnati Reds fans, who just 36 hours earlier were salivating over the prospect of an NLDS sweep of the San Francisco Giants, aren't too pleased to see the series go to a decisive Game 5.

Giants top Reds 8-3 to force decisive Game 5

Thanks for some sterling relief work from Tim Lincecum (yes, Tim Lincecum), the San Francisco Giants have a solid shot at winning their Division Series despite losing the first two games at home.

Giants still lead Reds 8-3 after 8 innings

Tim Lincecum just keeps on pitching.

Lincecum entered Game 4 with two outs in the fourth inning. Since then, he's pitched 4⅓ innings, allowing just one run while striking out six Cincinnati Reds. Lincecum had retired seven straight Cincinnati Reds before Dioner Navarro dropped a broken-bat bloop single into center field.

But the Giants' right-hander got Drew Stubbs on a little broken-bat "liner" (for lack of a better word) and he struck out pinch-hitter Chris Heisey to end the inning.

There was a moment of light comedy in there, though, when Lincecum threw a pickoff throw to first base even though the closest uniformed person to the base was first-base coach Billy Hatcher. Lincecum got the error as Navarro moved to second base, but of course that was moot.

After eight innings, it's still Giants 8, Reds 3.

Pablo Sandoval hates a specific baseball, Giants up 8-3

The Giants weren't hitting for the first three games of the series, and one of the big reasons for that was Pablo Sandoval wasn't hitting. The fluffy third baseman was 2-for-13 in the NLDS coming into Game 4. That's nothing but small-sample size working -- maybe some overaggressiveness, too -- but he's still one of the reasons they weren't scoring.

Weren't, as in the past tense. Because Pablo Sandoval took his pandanger out on Jose Arredondo in the top of the seventh inning:

Goodness. That shot put the Giants up 8-3, and Arredondo left to a chorus of Cincinnati boos, which seems a little much ... but he certainly didn't do well out there. He allowed two doubles and a homer -- as many extra-base hits as the Giants had in the first three games combined.

On the other side, middle reliever Tim Lincecum performed quite well. In the bottom of the seventh, he struck out Joey Votto looking and Jay Bruce swinging, going 3⅓, striking out four, and allowing just one run.

Reds score in 6th, still trail Giants 5-3

Drew Stubbs led off the bottom of the sixth, and drove Tim Lincecum's second pitch down the left-field line, just fair, for a double.

With the pitcher's spot due next, Dusty Baker deployed pinch "hitter" Miguel Cairo, who's 38 years old and batted .187 during the regular season. Cairo checked his swing on a fastball and hit a little dribbler toward third base. It didn't dribble enough for Cairo to reach first base safely, but it dribbled enough for Stubbs to take third. Which proved important a moment later when Brandon Phillips hit a fly to right field, deep enough for Stubbs to trot home.

It took 10 pitches, but Lincecum finally finished off Zack Cozart to end the inning. The Giants are still ahead, but now the Reds are just a bloop and a blast away from tying Game 4.

Giants 5, Reds 3

Wednesday's fun fact

Giants knock out Leake, now lead 5-2 in 5th

The Giants have used four pitchers. The Reds have used two pitchers. So how do the Giants have a two-run lead over the Reds in the bottom of the fifth inning? It's like Joaquin Andujar said: youneverknow.

With Mat Latos pressed into duty in Game 1 because of Johnny Cueto's first-inning injury, Mike Leake was pressed into starting duties for the Reds in Game 4. But Angel Pagan led off the game with a home run, and Gregor Blanco hit a two-run shot off Leake in the second inning. That made it 3-1, but Ryan Ludwick narrowed the gap with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the third.

Leake couldn't survive the fifth inning, though. Joaquin Arias led off with a double to left, and came around to score when Pagan doubled to right center. After Marco Scutaro sacrificed Pagan to third, Dusty Baker replaced Leake with Sam Lecure. His first pitch to Pablo Sandoval was hit plenty far enough into center field for a sacrifice fly, with Pagan sprinting home.

LeCure retired Buster Posey to end the half-inning, but the Giants are now ahead of the Reds, 5-2.

Bochy turns to Lincecum, Giants still up 3-2 in 5th

Let the second-guessing begin.

Barry Zito couldn't survive the third inning. Tim Lincecum pitched in the fourth. So why (a reasonable fan might ask) not just start Lincecum in the first place? Well, Lincecum threw 25 pitches while pitching a couple of relief innings just three days ago, in Game 2 of this series. He probably could have started Game 4. But for better or worse, Bruce Bochy has committed, in this series at least, to using Lincecum as a reliefer.

George Kontos took over for Zito in the third, just as he took over for Matt Cain in the sixth, in Game 1. Who do you call for relief when your starting pitcher gets knocked out earlier than usual? K-O-N-T-O-S.

Kontos, a 27-year-old rookie, didn't get much ink during the regular season, but he's suddenly filling a big role as the Giants' starters can't seem to last more than a few innings. In this game, though, his role didn't last long: only two outs. He got the third out in the third, then the first out in the fourth. That first out in the fourth was preceded by Mike Leake's infield hit, and succeeded by Zack Cozart's line-drive single into left.

And so with the imminent appearance of Joey Votto, Bruce Bochy really got to managing. He brought in a left-hander, Jose Mijares, to face Votto.

Mijares struck out Votto.

With right-handed-hitting Ryan Ludwick up next, Bochy made a double-switch that included bringing Lincecum into the game to face Ludwick.

Lincecum struck out Ludwick.

Lincecum's presumably going to last longer in this game than Kontos or Mijares. But it's only the fifth inning and Bochy's already three deep into his bullpen in a game the Giants absolutely have to win. It's a good thing he's got a massive brain, because he's going to be doing a lot of thinking.

Ryan Ludwick crushes homer, Giants still lead 3-2

In 2010, the San Diego Padres traded for Ryan Ludwick at the trading deadline. They were a game-and-a-half up in the division, and Ludwick was hitting .281/.343/.484 for the Cardinals. After the trade, Ludwick hit .211/.301/.330, and the Padres went 30-30, losing the division by two games.

In a way, Ludwick was partially responsible for the Giants winning the West, which would put them in line for their first World Series title in San Francisco.

So he's making up for lost time. If the Reds hang on to their series lead and advance to the NLCS, Ludwick will likely get some consideration for the series MVP. Actually, I don't think they have division-series MVPs. But they should. And Ludwick would have a shot because he keeps doing stuff like this:

After the third-inning homer, Zito allowed a two-out walk, and that was it for him. Giants manager Bruce Bochy pulled Zito, who allowed eight runners, and brought in reliever George Kontos, who got a fly ball to end the inning.

Quick note on Hector Sanchez

He is a, uh, work in progress.

The 22-year-old catcher somehow became the sort-of-personal catcher for both Barry Zito and Tim Lincecum this year, even though he isn't good at framing pitches or "catching." Yet. He's young. Give him time. But that time probably shouldn't be in an elimination game. On an 0-2 count with two outs, Barry Zito dropped in a nasty curve to Zack Cozart:

If it looks a little low to you, that's probably because of how Hector Sanchez caught it. The pitch was actually a clear strike:

That'd be the green "3" obscured by the red "1."

When Bruce Bochy took Brandon Belt out and put Posey at first, he weakened the defense at two positions and the offense at one. But Sanchez singled ahead of Gregor Blanco's homer, and the Cozart call didn't hurt -- after Cozart singled, Joey Votto flew out to end the inning. So to this point, Bochy's looking like he's coming out ahead, even if he didn't gamble wisely.

Gregor Blanco clubs homer, Giants up 3-1

This is normally a good spot to make a joke at the Giants' expense. Gregor Blanco hit a two-run home run off Mike Leake in the top of the second inning, giving the Giants a 3-1 lead:

So it'd be a perfect time to suggest they haven't been doing this before because they didn't want to climb the fence and get the ball back from Mr. McGurt's yard.

Because they thought those were the rules and ... never mind.

Point being, the Giants weren't doing any hitting in the first three games of this series, but they are so far in Game 4.

Except that'd be a joke that paid to much attention to the small sample of a short series. Throughout the regular season, the Giants were actually the second-best in baseball at scoring runs on the road. They were just below the league-average in home runs on the road, but they were dead last in homers at AT&T Park with 31, just 107 behind the Yankees.

The Giants can score on the road. One of their problems is the other teams have been able to score on the road against them, too. So with Barry Zito on the mound and looking shaky, this could be one of those games.

Angel Pagan smacks leadoff homer; Reds, Giants tied at 1

Wednesday afternoon, the Giants are getting right to work against the Reds. Leadoff hitter Angel Pagan sent the second pitch of the game into the seats to give San Francisco the early lead over the Reds in Game 4:

The Giants then continued to attack Reds starter Mike Leake early in the count, with Marco Scutaro flying out on the second pitch and Pablo Sandoval knocking a double on a 1-0 count. After advancing to third, Sandoval was stranded after Hunter Pence struck out on three pitches.

In the bottom half of the first, Giants starter Barry Zito made his first postseason appearance since 2006. Zito finished the regular season strong, having tacked up a 3.03 ERA through 35.2 innings in September.

After retiring the first two Reds and letting up a single to Joey Votto, Zito suddenly lost control. He walked Ryan Ludwick and Jay Bruce, having fallen behind 3-0 in the count to both men, and then walked Todd Frazier on five pitches to force in a run. Zito escaped after striking out Dioner Navarro, but the 13-year veteran has 30 pitches to his name after just one inning.

As we head to the second, the Giants and Reds are knotted at 1.

Rookie Todd Frazier busts into Reds' Game 4 lineup

Make an error in the 10th inning, get yanked from the next game's lineup.

That's what happened to Scott Rolen, anyway. Here is Reds manager Dusty Baker's lineup for Game 4 of their Division Series against the Giants:

Giants lineup set for Game 4

The San Francisco Giants have another must-win game Wednesday afternoon at Cincinnati, and manager Bruce Bochy has submitted his lineup (* indicates left-handed hitter, # indicates switch-hitter):

Angel Pagan, cf #
Marco Scutaro, 2b
Pablo Sandoval, 3b #
Buster Posey, 1b
Hunter Pence, rf
Hector Sanchez, c #
Gregor Blanco, lf
Brandon Crawford, ss *
Barry Zito, p *

This lineup is a bit of a surprise as earlier, Bochy had indicated that he was leaning toward having Posey catch Zito. However:

Rookie Hector Sanchez usually caught Zito during the regular season after the rapport they established in the minors last season. But Bochy wants Brandon Belt to play, and not in left field.

Belt, as you can see, is on the bench. So, Bochy's taking a chance. For the Giants' sake, it needs to work. Mike Leake, pressed into service after the injury to Johnny Cueto, gets the start; he hasn't pitched in 11 days, but had an excellent start against the Giants June 29 in San Francisco. He threw a complete game, allowing just one run in a 5-1 Reds win.

Cueto removed from Reds NLDS roster, Leake will start Game 4

The Cincinnati Reds have officially removed right-hander Johnny Cueto from their NLDS roster, activating Mike Leake to start Game 4 Wednesday afternoon. Cueto was removed from his Game 1 start on Saturday after just ⅓ of an inning because of back spasms caused by a right oblique strain.

All playoff teams must receive MLB approval to make any changes to their roster in the midst of the series. It was briefly unclear whether the Reds would receive approval before game time, but general manager Walt Jocketty said the team had everything under control, per the Cincinnati Enquirer:

"We finally got approval from MLB this morning," Walt Jocketty said. "We removed Johnny from the playoff roster and added Leake. Johnny won’t eligible for the NLCS. That’s the rule."

While Cueto will be ineligible to return for the NLCS, he could return for the World Series if healthy and the squad makes it that far. Cueto's strain is not believed to be severe, but is still bad enough that the Reds' medical staff said the right-hander would only be able to make one start in the Championship Series at most.

The 24-year-old Leake (8-9, 4.58) will make his postseason debut at 4:00 ET Wednesday against the Giants.

Giants vs. Reds, 2012 NLDS Game 4: Time, TV schedule, lineups and more

The San Francisco Giants and Cincinnati Reds will play Game 4 of the NLDS at 4 p.m. Wednesday.